DIY frozen feeder - build

kvosstra · Jul 30, 2023

I know others have attempted this, and I may just be bad at searching if one has been successful, but I would like to get one built.

For starters, I work (often a lot) and prefer my fish to be fat and happy (and also feed my corals). Secondly, I have a large display (560g) and several large fish. My goal this fall is to add in my school/shoal of chromis/anthias as well as some other smaller/medium sized fish. I recognize that feeding them 3-5 times a day increases success rate of these fish and leads to long-term health. I already have a pellet feeder that I automate.

Goal would be to make a feeder that uses the frozen cube style food (possibly a DIY food mix) that feeds at least 4 times a day.

Im thinking of using a hopper style system, that has a single bucket in a belt driven system, the food drops into the single bucket in the belt and then is pulled to the return pump - drops into a pipe above the return and sucked into the display (my sump is in the basement).

I will work on sourcing some Off the shelf products for this - but any guidance is welcomed!

areefer01 · Jul 30, 2023

Do a search for reef beef over on youtube. Rich has a video of one he made. It is pretty simple using acrylic or a reactor type device. Basically you are filling it with water, food, and an air bubbler to thaw and mix. There is a pipe that exits. Water enters at a slow rate, fills up the cylinder, overflows or exits the pipe, into the display or in front of a return pump. Slow process over say 30 minutes or an hour. Easy to automate can also use coral food for broadcast feeding.

Holder, bubbler to mix, water in after X amount of time, fills up holder, exits with food. Done.

Reefering1 · Jul 30, 2023

My question would be how do you reload the device, automatically, with frozen food- without having a large amount thawed and spoiling..(?) That way it can operate for a week or 2 without attention.

areefer01 · Jul 30, 2023

Reefering1 said:
My question would be how do you reload the device, automatically, with frozen food- without having a large amount thawed and spoiling..(?) That way it can operate for a week or 2 without attention.

Manual. I can't speak for other products like mini fridge and dosing liquids. The example I mentioned above is manual. You take the food, drop it in, and go about your business. Easy to semi automate using a controller though as a feed mode.

One way to look at it is like this. I feed pellet via an auto feeder hourly from 0830 to 1830. Small feeds but every hour. At 1930 I feed frozen. Cup of tank water, drop a few cubes or pieces of LRS, let it thaw for a few minutes, then toss it in the display.

Works ok.

Reefering1 · Jul 30, 2023

Sure that works.. figure out how to make it run a week or 2 and you really got something. Imagine ther people wanting to go on vacation without tank sitter... maybe a device, like typical fridge icemaker, that spits a couple cubes out a mini fridge every few hours

areefer01 · Jul 30, 2023

Reefering1 said:
Sure that works.. figure out how to make it run a week or 2 and you really got something. Imagine ther people wanting to go on vacation without tank sitter... maybe a device, like typical fridge icemaker, that spits a couple cubes out a mini fridge every few hours

There are a few frozen auto feeders here but I'm not sure if they are working with chunky foods vs liquid. So the bubbler example I gave is a bit different. In either case you should be able to find a few examples.

Good luck.

Reefering1 · Jul 30, 2023

areefer01 said:
There are a few frozen auto feeders here but I'm not sure if they are working with chunky foods vs liquid. So the bubbler example I gave is a bit different. In either case you should be able to find a few examples.

Good luck.

Maybe keeping the slurry between 35-40*, in fridge, would keep bacteria at bay(?). And dose that into return pump..

theatrus · Jul 30, 2023

If you had a non-defrosting freezer, a bunch of cubes in an auger like device could be coaxed to dump into a mixing vessel for dispensing.

It may be simpler to just use freeze dried.

kvosstra · Jul 31, 2023

theatrus said:
If you had a non-defrosting freezer, a bunch of cubes in an auger like device could be coaxed to dump into a mixing vessel for dispensing.

It may be simpler to just use freeze dried.

this is what I was thinking, generally - use the auger to push a cube forward. Drive the belt one rotation, and it drops the frozen cube into the return space.

That said, freeze dried does remove that issue.